How Mary Fitzpatrick's been scuppered before

MARY Fitzpatrick will today be wondering 'why me?' For the third time in her political career, the so-called 'Drumcondra Mafia' is on a mission to scupper her dreams of finally breaking into national politics.

MARY Fitzpatrick will today be wondering 'why me?' For the third time in her political career, the so-called 'Drumcondra Mafia' is on a mission to scupper her dreams of finally breaking into national politics.

An able, hungry Fianna Fáil activist, Ms Fitzpatrick agreed to bat for the party during its darkest of days.

She relinquished her beloved Dublin City Council seat last year in order to represent Fianna Fáil in the European elections.

Ms Fitzpatrick's European campaign never took off and she was comfortably defeated into fifth place. Since then, she has considered closely her next move.

In what is likely to be her last swing at the bat, Ms Fitzpatrick is set to contest the party convention in Dublin Central ahead of the upcoming general election.

But this is not the first time the wheels of the Bertie machine have been set in motion in order to damage Ms Fitzpatrick's electoral hopes.

Her run-ins with the Ahern camp began prior to the 2007 election - during which she appeared on course to take a seat.

But on the eve of polling day, Mr Ahern sent out a letter to 30,000 constituents in Dublin Central asking them to give their number two vote to Cyprian Brady (left).

The leaflet made no reference to Ms Fitzpatrick.

The move was seen as an attempt to sabotage the female candidate, who lost out on a Dáil seat despite securing nearly double Mr Brady's first preference votes.

Mr Ahern then put the dagger into Ms Fitzpatrick's campaign again in 2011 when he released a letter which again called on voters to back Mr Brady ahead of his running mate.